Wisconsin Freeride Found!!!!!!!!!!!

Vertical Illusions is the place to go. An amazing park Year passes are $45 and it is worth it. We are having a build sunday May 25. Send me an email. im heading out there early in the morning to finish some log rides as well as a couple hucks. There is a lot of steep downhill as well as a lot of bridges. Send me an email or Private Message if you want to go on sunday. Kitsapfreerider@gmail.com

hike-a-bike, and i think theres a road someplace but being in wisconsin its not very high so im sure hike a bike would be faster, hey ufisher any more updates on when nordic is going to have a chairlift day again?

Looks great, can't wait to try it out. Please post more pictures when you have time. I'd love to help out but my summer is busy with road racing and my new son. I will gladly help out in late August when my racing season comes to a close.

yep that the right friendship. We are going to put in a set of teetertoters like that sunday if we get the time. Currently there is a couple trails that lead to the top. The elevation change is actualy very good. The trail im going to be personally working on is a north shore section. I want to mimic the north shore sections im used and grew up on. The trail is on the peak and has a small elevation change but is mostly flat. there is a lot of rock and trees.

Its $45 for the year. We have a chainsaw(posibly two), 3 shovels, 2 rakes, 1 hoe, 1 pick, 25 lbs of 16p nails. So anyone else want to build? It really is worth it. The park has very litttle building restrictions. 20-30foot hucks are okay to build. the biger the better. iM sticking with the 10 footers, haha.

Anyone want to come sunday, one person would be nice.

Originally Posted by Formerbmx37

so if a put a card in my spokes could i trick people in to thinking my bike is good

Heres what brad, my bro and I got done today. Does not look like a lot but we had to remove a lot of stumps and i didn't get any pics of the table top im putting in. I got pics of only one of the hucks its only a 15 foot gap but at higher speed you can huck it about 20 and fall 15 feet. Next time im going with a better camera and going to take pics of all of the features. All of the pics are from one trail and there is one other trail. If we get more riders we can put in a lot more trails.

yep the place is completely legal its a freeride park. they look sketchy but there all really stable. the posts for the bridges are in the ground 2 feet and the logs are all secured really well. we will clean up the bridges when we get the rest of the trail cut. We are also replacing a lot of the ladder rungs soon.

Originally Posted by Formerbmx37

so if a put a card in my spokes could i trick people in to thinking my bike is good

first trail length total im not sure of but its a couple minutes long and both areas im building, the A-line inspired trail and the north shore trail are going to be longer section. right now though unless we get more builders the northshore section is going to be really limited because it takes a lot of time and man power. It might just be an obstacle course insead of a trail. then in the furture cover the entire top of the park. The A-line like trail will switchback down the entire side of the north east slope from the trail chutes and ladders to the rock cliff. The south east trail right now just called the expert trail is really short but you are really lucky to make it down to the bottom in one peice. definitly a double black diamond trail.

The water issue. Okay so as a lot of you are aware of im from washington which has some of the most rainfall in the US. so im really good with drainage. I have not been to the trail sence the big rain storm. One thing is there is a fall line that runs down the mountain and i was told it would be a proble right now the trail that crosses the fall in line has bridges over it. i plan of adding wood gates just to slow water flow down. but the trail itself i think will do fine most of it is on a slope with a steep grade trail. Theres a lot of armored sections that provide dranage through the cracks. but i will give a report next time in up.

Anyone want to go help Brad and me???Send me an email or private message.

Originally Posted by Formerbmx37

so if a put a card in my spokes could i trick people in to thinking my bike is good

andy, rocks often provide better drainage on wet trails...i'd try that before wood gates, but you might need to irrigate it a little and do both...just make sure it doesn't end up like that corner of ben and baylon's trail.

yeah the gound is to soft for rocks and the fall line is about 15 feet wide. on th trail itself we use rocks. yeah im making sure it doesn't end up like ben and baylon's trail. that thing was so bad in that mid swection were the trail was a runninf river, haha, the mud was 12 inhes in some areas covered my a foot plus of water.

Originally Posted by Formerbmx37

so if a put a card in my spokes could i trick people in to thinking my bike is good

Well it has been some time since I have posted here but I have an update. Since I moved to WI I have become more involved with the local bike community. As of spring of last year I installed a 2 mile trail in an undisclosed location in Oshkosh. It has some features and is soon to have another 1-2 miles installed. It is definitely not freeride but will have a very flowy fast feel once completed. Things like all corners bermed, whoops, bridges, rock gardens, etc. Stay tuned because if all goes as planned it will be open to the public for a small fee(cover future build costs).

On the other hand if someone would get there hands on a Grand Chute Future Rec Development Plan they will see that in 2013 there is 75k allotted to create a second freeride bike park on the north end of the city. With and expected +$75k match by the community. It is being built by the same company who built the Valmont bike park in Colorado. Drawings come out soon. It will have a technical mountain bike loop, DJ lines, pump track, dual slalom, slope style, and much more.

More to come...

Originally Posted by Formerbmx37

so if a put a card in my spokes could i trick people in to thinking my bike is good

I know, I hate to do that. Unfortunately I can't tell the location of the current oshkosh trail. I have to get approval from some uppers before I can release the location. I am working with someone on a project out west of oshkosh about 15 minutes. If it gets approved we will be assembling a trail crew to build an XC/AM loop. This spring will be good though. Shoot me a PM if you are interested in building in and around Oshkosh.

Originally Posted by Formerbmx37

so if a put a card in my spokes could i trick people in to thinking my bike is good

These posts were started a long time ago. From all I've seen the Vertical Illusions business is still only an outfitter for zip line, rock climbing, and water sports.

Devil's Head is a commercial riding place near but has not had consistent development or quality new school trail development. I'm not aware of their marketing, sending info or having quality building like the Rock Complex. A Devil's Head update would be nice.

There are some DH style trails in the Madison area that are not commercial sites. Change is present there because the land owners/managers are not allowing history to repeat where some combination of unsustainable or poor build quality and enthusiasts not maturing or sticking around leaves them with a deteriorating mess. For these non-commercial sites Quarry Ridge and Middleton Bike Park have budgets and good land managers. Blackhawk Ski Club new reduced summer membership fees and is in a multi-year reset that includes a budget and professionals assessing the property. Those are already a ways from Dells area. The Rock is even farther.

It would be sweet to see a group of downhill riders mature and make something sustainable whether that's supporting a business or their own work.

I live in Appleton, but vacation in The Dells a few times a summer. My brother-in-law lives in Madison, so I get down there often. I just never bring the MTB along, because I don't know where to go with limited "me" time. I usually just bring my commuter bike to get early morning rides in.

No longer happening. Search Art Lecker here for more details. Last I heard they were looking for a new location since DNR denied the original plan at Art Lecker Park.

Originally Posted by kitsapfreerider

Well it has been some time since I have posted here but I have an update. Since I moved to WI I have become more involved with the local bike community. As of spring of last year I installed a 2 mile trail in an undisclosed location in Oshkosh. It has some features and is soon to have another 1-2 miles installed. It is definitely not freeride but will have a very flowy fast feel once completed. Things like all corners bermed, whoops, bridges, rock gardens, etc. Stay tuned because if all goes as planned it will be open to the public for a small fee(cover future build costs).

On the other hand if someone would get there hands on a Grand Chute Future Rec Development Plan they will see that in 2013 there is 75k allotted to create a second freeride bike park on the north end of the city. With and expected +$75k match by the community. It is being built by the same company who built the Valmont bike park in Colorado. Drawings come out soon. It will have a technical mountain bike loop, DJ lines, pump track, dual slalom, slope style, and much more.

More to come...

anyone know anything on this bike park project? did they find a new location or eta?

It would be sweet to see a group of downhill riders mature and make something sustainable whether that's supporting a business or their own work.

I don't really see that ever happening in S. Wisco. There just isn't a user base big enough to have mature individuals interested in long term development. Not only that, the landscape isn't entirely conducive to downhill style trails that take more than 1.5 minutes to finish. XC riding or road bikes? Sure.

I haven't ridden at Blackhawk but I've spent plenty of time at Quarry Ridge and the trails can be fun, but they are painfully short, obviously due to acreage constraints.

I don't really see that ever happening in S. Wisco. There just isn't a user base big enough to have mature individuals interested in long term development. Not only that, the landscape isn't entirely conducive to downhill style trails that take more than 1.5 minutes to finish. XC riding or road bikes? Sure.

I haven't ridden at Blackhawk but I've spent plenty of time at Quarry Ridge and the trails can be fun, but they are painfully short, obviously due to acreage constraints.

Isn't the rock in southern wi? That looks pretty solid. I think the key to any scene is having the opportunity to do it. Of course there isn't interest in freeride and dh if there is no where to do it. Its no different than bmx racing or dirt jumping. You won't have a bunch of people doing it unless someone steps up and builds it. The longer it is established the more popular it will become but it can't be hush hush if you really want to try and establish a scene and grow the sport.

The popularity of cycling sports like road riding and street bmx is simply due to the ease of accessibility . You don't have a park scene if you don't have a good park... go to toma and Warren's and the riders are killer park riders due to jellystone... just saying have to build it to have it

Isn't the rock in southern wi? That looks pretty solid. I think the key to any scene is having the opportunity to do it. Of course there isn't interest in freeride and dh if there is no where to do it. Its no different than bmx racing or dirt jumping. You won't have a bunch of people doing it unless someone steps up and builds it. The longer it is established the more popular it will become but it can't be hush hush if you really want to try and establish a scene and grow the sport.

Right, you'll have a few official places, like the Rock in Franklin or Blackhawk outside of Madison, and probably some unsanctioned/private areas that are only for the "in the know" folks, and if the scene keeps moving forward there could be more, but DH/freeride is certainly a younger person's discipline. It takes long term development and land management to make these things work. Bmx isn't nearly as popular today as it was when I was a kid in the 80's, but there are still Bmx tracks scattered throughout Wisco.

If people will fork out the money for fees to support a park/trail system, then it may work, but long term wise, I doubt it.

Every single ski throughout the midwest could easily support a DH trail system if there was widespread interest. People are all over the ski/snowboard hills in the winter, but then the barrier to entry for DH/freeride bike riding is orders of magnitude greater than snowboards and skis.

Right every ski hill could support it and I think they might. We will have to wait and see but if places like the rock, grand rapids mn and spirit mt in duluth take off I think you will see more and more ski hills add dh as a summer activity.
I won't argue that freeride/ dh/bmx are more youth oriented but you can pretty easily do it into your 40s.
I really think the Midwest needs to start embracing more alternative riding opportunities if they want to get more youth into the sport and help it grow. Xc,CX and road are just not that appealing to young riders. The high school league is helping but most kids into bijes around here ride street bmx and bmx racing is loosing popularity but street is gaining. It all comes down to availability. We need more alternative riding opportunities like bike parks and lift acces to help grow the sport of mtb

In regards to the Grand Chute park. I don't ever see that happening... It went around and around between the town board and park commission. The last meeting that I know of included some discussion of building single track at Prairie hill park, but it needed to go around the town board/park commission merry-go-round again. I'm not holding my breath...

If you want to get more involved in getting more trails in the Fox Valley, check out Fox Valley Mountain Bikers which is part of the Northeast Wisconsin Trails IMBA chapter. FVMTB: Fox Valley Mountain Bikers

Disclaimer: I no longer fix bikes for a living.
National Ski Patroller to feed my winter habit.